Regardless of the conditions in which you have sustained an injured ear, in order to initiate claims for ear injury compensation in Ireland, the accident in which you sustained the injury must be the result of the carelessness of somebody who owed you a reasonable duty of care. This does not mean that person had to be around at the time of your ear injury in order to claim compensation for an injured ear – just that their careless action – or inaction – was the reason why your ear injury occurred.
Often, it may not even be an individual person against whom an injured ear claim for compensation is initiated. Compensation claims for ear injuries can be made against corporate bodies, local councils and State agencies who have failed in their duty of care to protect you from foreseeable risks and, once it is established that the incident in which your ear was injured could have been prevented had greater care been taken by one of these “third parties”, you will be eligible to make a claim for injuring an ear and recover compensation for your injury.
Making Compensation Claims for Ear Injuries
The process for making compensation claims for ear injuries in Ireland is to submit an application for assessment to the Injuries Board. This can be done using a hard copy of the Assessment Form A or by making your application for the assessment of compensation for an injured ear injury online (except in the case of ear injury compensation claims for children). Your application for assessment should also feature your doctor´s medical assessment of your injured ear injury (Assessment Form B) and receipts for any financial expenses you wish to reclaim.
Once the Injuries Board Ireland receives validation from the negligent party to proceed with an assessment, you may be required to undertake a further medical examination to determine the extent of your ear injury – after which the Injuries Board will provide a “Notice of Assessment” informing you and the negligent party of how much they have assessed your claim for injuring an ear to be worth. If both you and the negligent party confirm the Injuries Board´s assessment of your injured ear claim for compensation, an “Order to Pay” is issued and your claim will be finalised by the negligent party´s insurance company.
How Much Compensation for an Injured Ear?
The “value” of compensation claims for ear injuries in Ireland is calculated in consideration to the “Book of Quantum” – a publication which notes a comprehensive range of injuries and allocates a financial value to an injured ear depending on how severe your ear injury is and how long you may take to recover from it. This figure of compensation for an injured ear is then adjusted to consider your age, previous state of health and what effect your ear injury has on your quality of life.
You are also eligible to include in your claim for injuring an ear any quantifiable psychological trauma you experienced because of the nature of the incident in which your ear was injured and any financial expenses you have incurred due to your ear injury. Unless you have had experience of initiating an application for assessment to the Injuries Board in the past, it is very difficult to adequately communicate all the consequences of an ear injury on the application for assessment, and it is therefore in your best interests to have a solicitor assess your injured ear claim for compensation before presenting it to the Injuries Board to ensure you receive your maximum entitlement of ear injury compensation.
The Statute of Limitations and Compensation for an Injured Ear
Most compensation claims for ear injuries in Ireland are subject to the Statute of Limitations in consideration of how long plaintiffs have in which to make a claim for compensation for an injured ear. You are generally provided with two years from the date on which you are aware that you have sustained an ear injury in which to make an injured ear claim for compensation. Although the “date of knowledge” of an ear injury is usually the same day as when your ear was injured, there are scenarios in which you may become aware of the injured ear beyond the date on which the injury occurred.
There are also exceptions to the Statute of Limitations which can influence how long you have in which to make a claim for injuring an ear in Ireland. These include, but are not limited to:-
- Ear injury compensation claims for children and those with mental incapacity
- Conflicts with the Consumer Protection Act should your ear injury be caused by a faulty product
- Conflicts with the Athens and Montreal Conventions when you have injured an ear while travelling by air or by sea
Making an Injured Ear Claim for Compensation for a Child
If your child has injured an ear in an accident for which they were not entirely at fault, they are not allowed to make an injured ear claim for compensation in their own right or instruct a solicitor until they have reached the age of eighteen. As all evidence of negligence may have vanished by that time, it is usual procedure for a parent or guardian to make compensation claims for ear injuries on their child´s behalf acting as their “next friend”.
The process for making ear injury compensation claims for children varies considerably from when an adult injures an ear. A child´s injury claim for injuring an ear have to submitted to the Injuries Board via post (online application for assessment will be rejected), the next friend will be responsible for all financial liabilities should the injured ear injury claim be unsuccessful and, when a compensation settlement for an injured ear is agreed, the settlement has to be approved by a judge in court.
Compensation Claim for Injuring an Ear: Summary
No two compensation claims for ear injuries in Ireland are the same – regardless of how similar the circumstances of the accident were – and it is recommended that you discuss your accident and ear injury with a solicitor at the first available moment. A solicitor will be able to help with potential issues such as establishing liability for your ear injury, collecting evidence of negligence on your behalf and ensuring that your application for the assessment of ear injury compensation to the Injuries Board accurately reflects the consequences that your injured ear have made to your quality of life.
An ear injury can often be a debilitating experience, and although no amount of compensation for an injured ear can ever make up for the negligence of the person who was to blame for your injury, it costs nothing to find out whether you have an injured ear claim for compensation which it is worth your while to pursue. Therefore, you are recommended to discuss your eligibility to make a compensation claim for injuring an ear with a solicitor at the first available opportunity.